Prayer Flag Project Day 7: Shelter

I pray for shelter... for a warm and clean place that each person calls his own.

In doing a quick search of the internet, I found this startling statistic on the National Alliance to End Homelessness website.  Their most recent data was for 2009.



According to the site, over 656,000 Americans were homeless at one point 2009.  Assuming that the count is accurate, and the following statistic was true, the number of people in our country who were living unsheltered was in excess of 262,000.  In other words,

While most people experiencing homelessness are sheltered, nearly 4 in 10 were living on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation. 

Click to enlarge

Day 7's flag, Shelter, is made of a single layer of linen fabric and a piece of antique lace.  Since homelessness is an international issue, the threads and fabrics that form the nest are from every continent except Antarctica.   The paper tag reads, "Your home may be one room, apartment, cottage, large house..." and is made of text gleaned from a vintage Girl Scout Handbook.


Today marks the one week point of the project.  I snapped a quick photo of the flags in the garden, hung on the stakes for the raspberry bushes.